Bees fear for Thorpy

By Elliott Josypenko
February 15 2005

Pertemps Bees are fearing the worst for prop Jim Thorp who dislocated his left shoulder in the defeat at Coventry 10 days ago

This is the third time he has damaged the shoulder in recent years. He missed four months of last season after damaging the same shoulder at Waterloo and needed surgery to repair and pin the joint.

He is due to visit the specialist in Sheffield who carried out that repair today to establish the extent of the current injury.

Director of rugby Phil Maynard said: "That shoulder has been damaged a lot now and I fear the worst for him. Each time it happens it weakens that shoulder.

"Until he has seen the specialist we do not know the extent of the damage this time but there is an obvious concern about Jim's ability to play at this level again having suffered another serious injury.

"We hope that it will not mean the end of Jim's career because, at 29, he still has several good years of senior rugby ahead of him."

There is better news about skipper Ed Orgee after fears that his knee injury could be more serious than expected but a scan has revealed that ligament damage and no surgery is required.

He will miss this weekend's home match against Bristol and the following week against Plymouth but has an outside chance of being fit for the Powergen Shield semifinal at Sharmans Cross Road on March 5.

Bees are likely to be without Ryan Lamb, on loan from Gloucester, because of England Under-19 commitments, for the Bristol game but fellow loanee former England Under-21 flanker Luke Narraway, recalled by Gloucester last week as cover during the Six Nations, could well be back on a non-international weekend.

Bristol are expected to include three former Pertemps Bees players, winger Luke Nabaro and fly-halves Jason Strange and Mark Woodrow, in their squad for the game.

"Bristol and Plymouth are perfect preparation for the Bedfordga m e and that is the way we are looking at it. There are probably the best two teams in this division," said Maynard who, like Bees, knows that victory against Bedford would mean a first competitive trip to Twickenham.